I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing young women, a marvelous relief society and fantastic leadership at church.

As part of my month of March my goal is to get to know my visiting teaching companion and actually get out there to see the sisters on my route. I’m a tad bit nervous because I’ve only experienced visiting teaching a handful of times and I honestly have no idea what to expect or even how to begin.

I guess the first thing to do is snag Sister R and pray about heading out to see the women on our route as soon as my schedule switches over. If I don’t mention it again over the next few posts, won’t one of you call me out on it and make sure we’re holding eachother accountable? I have reminders on my calander at home and at work and on my phone, but at the same time I am absolutely terrified.

Why am I terrified? Well, it’s hard for me to put myself out there. I’m a bit more shy than people thinkI am. Also known as I get nervous in social situations. Worse, I am horrible with names and faces. Luckily, after a bit of prayer, I finally have a visiting teaching companion so once I have my schedule flip flopped, we should be able to sync up with the ladies on our route.

I’m honestly looking forward to getting to know my companion and the sisters that we’ve been asked to visit and hope that we can make an impact on each others lives. I have some great examples of Latter-Day Saint women in my life, but I would love to meet more and have more that are an active part of my life.

I’m also working on some of my value experiences for my own personal progress. I can’t necessarily expect the young ladies in our ward to go through personal progress with me as a coach if I haven’t done it myself, or if I’m not working on my own at the same time they are.

I am sad though that I don’t have my own mother guiding me through this. I spent some time talking with my sister today and she indicated that my mother’s drinking has become more of a problem since the last time I’ve seen her. It is definitely heart breaking, but I know I will find the courage, after a lot of prayer, to approach my mom about personal progress and ask her to go through it with me, I just need one of those sober moments which are far and few in between.

Now, away from the things that cause me a bit of anxiety and the struggles wiht my family, which you will all hear a bit about over time and on to the value experiences I have started working on.

I’ve chosen the first experience in both Faith and Virtue as my diving in points.

If you aren’t a member or haven’t seen the current Personal Progress Value Experiences, I figured I should share. So here we go!

Faith Experience One:The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Learn about faith from the scriptures and living prophets. Read Hebrews 11; Alma 32:17–43; Ether 12:6–22; and Joseph Smith—History 1:11–20. Read two general conference talks on faith. Exercise your own faith by establishing a habit of prayer in your life. Begin by regularly saying your morning and evening prayers. After three weeks of following this pattern, discuss with a parent or leader what you have learned about faith and how daily personal prayer has strengthened your faith. In your journal express your feelings about faith and prayer.

Virtue Experience One:Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. It includes chastity and purity. The power to create mortal life is an exalted power God has given His children. He has commanded that this power be used only between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Study the meaning and importance of chastity and virtue by reading Moroni 9:9; Jacob 2:28; “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”; and the section on sexual purity in For the Strength of Youth. Also read Article of Faith number thirteen and Proverbs 31:10–31. In your journal write the promised blessings of being sexually clean and pure and your commitment to be chaste.

Over the next couple days while I’m wrapping up my lesson prep, I’ll not only be sharing more about Grace!!! but also writing about these two value experiences. I’ve already finished the Virtue Experience, but because of how close to home this one hit, I have a bit of blogging to do about it.